Politicians’ ability to produce bare-faced lies were exposed before, during and after the EU referendum campaign.

Few were surprised find promises slipping away even as the outcome became obvious early the next morning.

But a group of freedom fighters – clearly drawn from the ranks of financial services professionals – are fighting back.

A petition created earlier this month wants MPs to be held to the same standard the FCA expects of advisers. If successful, politicians will be held accountable for being “clear, fair and not misleading”.

The petition notice says it is in response to the “misrepresentations, mistruths and lies” the electorate were fed by politicians in the EU referendum, including that £350m sent to the EU each week would be redirected to the NHS.

Sadly, only 45 people have so far signed the petition meaning it falls short of the 10,000 signatures required for the government to respond to it and a long way off the 100,000 signatures needed for it to be considered for a debate in parliament.

The past week has been a whirlwind of political appointments, MP backstabbing and some scandal thrown in for good measure.

Those trying to keep up with all the comings and going might not have had time to research the new work and pensions secretary. Fear not, WSJ is here to help.

When Stephen Crabb quit the post after a mere four mouths and one sexting scandal, all eyes turned to who would replace him. A man of integrity, grit and new ideas, hopefully.

Enter stage left Damian Green. His Twitter provides all we need to know. He’s an MP for Ashford, a Reading FC fan and is “Half Man Half Biscuit”.

The only question remains, what kind of minister will he be? Will he be nice, learn to hobnob with the right people and speak to the (custard) cream of the industry? Or will he crumble and (brandy) snap under the pressure?

Recommended

While watching the Williams sisters advance to the final stages of Wimbledon, I caught up with the latest financial news. An article caught my eye about an advisory firm being launched in Nottingham called Cockburn Lucas for Women. I wonder what the odds are for Cockburn Lucas to be successful in attracting female clients? The […]

Any behavioural scientist will tell you that if your body language mirrors a significant other for a period of time a subconscious bonding takes place that creates empathy and rapport. Why, then, does the financial services industry not take this into account, particularly when it comes to customer service proposition design? Our latest research testing the […]

An adviser has issued a County Court Summons against Aviva over commission from a Friends Life personal pension he claims is owed to him. Barrett Financial Solutions managing director Kim Barrett is taking the provider to the small claims court because he is owed £415 in commission. He is also claiming for time spent trying […]

There is a puzzle at the centre of financial markets. The global economy is growing, there are signs of inflation and interest rates are going up, yet yields remain low. In this article, James Foster, manager of the Artemis Monthly Distribution fund, unpicks this conundrum and looks at where investors can find income. There is […]

Newsletter

Latest from Money Marketing

A group of 500 people have launched legal action against Ingenious Media saying they were misled about film investments that were later deemed to be tax avoidance by the government. According to Bloomberg, which cites court documents, employees from companies including Goldman Sachs, Lloyds Banking Group and HSBC are part of the action. British composer Andrew Lloyd-Webber is […]

Embark Services returned to profit in 2017 as it reported an increase in self-invested personal pension clients. Embark Services is a subsidiary of Embark Group that trades under the Hornbuckle and Embark brands. The business reported pre-tax profit for the year ending 31 December 2017 of £136,000 compared with a loss in 2016 of £2.4m. […]

Architas UK has seen inflows drop by just over 70 per cent in the first half of the year. The Axa-owned asset manager reported £152m net inflows for the first six months of 2018, compared with £546m in the first half of 2017. Globally, Architas’s net inflows dropped to €797m (£710.6m) in the first half […]

14th August 20182:45 pm

Comments

There is one comment at the moment, we would love to hear your opinion too.

Unfortunately, this article exposes the obvious problem of trying to regulate ‘lying’ politicians – the obvious political bias in enforcement. Afterall, this article refers to the perfectly valid point that EU contributions might be better spent on domestic priorities as a “lie”. It omits the simple fact that the main lies were told by the ‘remain’ camp: whether it was the ‘predictions’ of economic Armageddon or indeed the claim by George Osborne that he would meet the ‘shock’ of a Leave Vote with a fiscal tightening (‘punishment budget’) and indeed a monetary tightening e.g. the claim that interest & mortgage rates would have to rise. Instead we have the opposite: policymakers at the BoE still deciding whether the economy has suffered a shock, and contemplating rate cuts if they decide there has been; Politicians talking about cuts in corporation tax to make the UK more competitive and so forth. Clearly, the lies of the remain camp were very powerful. They co-opted millions of people with no love of the EU to vote in its favour on false pretences.

And yet you are silent. What next? Arresting journalists who tell lies that offend some section of metropolitan opinion? Shame on Money Marketing.

Leave a comment

Why register with Money Marketing ?

Providing trusted insight for professional advisers. Since 1985 Money Marketing has helped promote and analyse the financial adviser community in the UK and continues to be the trusted industry brand for independent insight and advice.